Every year, high-level negotiations with unsigned NFL players drag out till the 11th hour. These negotiations are always full of either side leveraging the other and trying to have an upper-hand in the deal. With the Dallas Cowboys, however, they have had a bit of an up and down offseason with regard to the free-agent market. The biggest question, however, that still remains unanswered is when will they extend their contract with quarterback Dak Prescott. The Cowboys only have till July 15 to sign a long-term extension their franchise quarterback.
Why Hasn’t Prescott Still Been Retained for a Long-Term?
Many believe that Prescott isn’t worth the money that the Cowboys pay him. The team may be better off with a cheaper quarterback. However, this isn’t very true. Dak Prescott has been performing incredibly well and the Cowboys, a team which hasn’t particularly shown the best taste in quarterbacks, could actually be better off keeping him on for the long-term. He is 6th in passing yard and 9th in passing touchdowns among the 25 quarterbacks who have thrown at least 1200 passes since his draft in 2016.
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He might not we as frequently as top quarterbacks, but the Cowboys don’t have a dominant defense either. His counterparts, Goff and Wentz, who were also drafted in 2016, have defenses ranked higher than Prescotts’. Thus, “the Cowboys need a deal more than Dak does”, as NFL’s Ian Rapoport puts it.
Why Prescott Might Be the One Deferring
Dak, however, might be holding the deal off because negotiating a longer contract term results in increased overall pay. A longer deal would also lead to further deals, extensions, renegotiations, or restructures to be based on that original larger figure. He might want to set the bar high in the beginning itself.
“We’ve seen players go the wrong way when it comes to putting it all on the line, betting on themselves while being a contract here. (But) I don’t think Dak cares about any of that. He showed us all last year. He’s so good at dealing with the outside world, which is perfect for a Cowboys quarterback“, Rapoport said.
Dallas would like Prescott to sign a five-year deal but Prescott might prefer a shorter-term to be able to cash in again as soon as the NFL salary cap rises post-2022. While the Cowboys should have already finalized a deal with Dak Prescott by now, the reason why there is a stalemate is that they believe that they could do better than a four-year deal.
